190 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



7. The A seventh argument, closely related to some of the 



thfearth, others, is drawn from the old belief in the earth as the 

 etc - centre of gravity, the heaviest body in the universe, and 



in the empyrean as the outermost limit and the lightest 

 body. 1 But, as we have seen, there is in the universe no 

 centre as the stars and their inhabitants are heavenly 

 beings to us, so are we and our earth to them. " Just 

 as the earth knows no centre or downward direction 

 proper which is away from its own body, but only a 

 centre of its mass, a central cavern of its heart, from 

 which the precious life is diffused through the whole 

 body, and which we may believe to be the chief seat of 

 the soul ; so there must be in the moon and other bodies 

 a centre which connects all parts, to which every member 

 contributes, and which is nourished by all the forces of 

 the living body." The old belief, therefore, that if 

 there were inhabitants at the antipodes they would be 

 apt to fall downwards into space, or that the parts of 

 the moon and its living beings might fall upon our 

 earth, was absurd, for the face of the earth always looks 

 upward in the direction of the radii from the centre to 

 the superficies. 2 



8 erfelt h as ^ e ^ ast ar g ument was tnat drawn from the supposed 

 the self- perfection of the universe. 3 Aristotle defined the perfect 

 as that which was limited by itself, not by another. 

 Hence the immeasurable would not be perfect, while the 

 world was perfect because limited by its own terminus. 

 Again body does not pass over into any other kind of 

 quantity, but it is the limit into which the line and the 

 point flow. The first argument, said Bruno, would hold 

 of any fragment of body, while the second would apply 

 to any animal or member of an animal, for these also 

 are self-contained and do not pass over into any other 



1 Bk. ii. ch. ii. 2 P. 300 ff. 3 Bk. ii. ch. 12. 302 ff. 



